Apparatus, system and method for a brand affinity engine using positive and negative mentions and indexing

ABSTRACT

An apparatus, system and method of implementing a computerized brand affinity engine. The apparatus, system and method include at least a plurality of computerized access points having accessible thereto a plurality of sites mentioning at least one sponsor, a categorized, hierarchical database of keywords, wherein at least the keywords falling in at least one category of the hierarchy correspond to a sponsor category of the at least one sponsor, and a tracker, wherein the tracker tracks positive ones of the mentions of the at least one sponsor on ones of the plurality of sites and negative ones of the mentions of the at least one sponsor on ones of the plurality of sites, in accordance with positive and negative keywords of the categorized, hierarchical database in the sponsor category, and wherein the tracker issues an rating with regard to the at least one sponsor in accordance with the positive ones and the negative ones of the mentions. An assessment of optimal sponsors for particular markets and/or in particular geographies that additionally increases sponsorship opportunities in particular markets and/or in particular geographies is thereby provided.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/587,940, entitled “Apparatus, System and Method for a Brand AffinityEngine Using Positive and Negative Mentions and Indexing, filed Oct. 14,2009; which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 12/220,917, entitled “System and Method for Distributing Content forUse with Entertainment Creatives, filed Jul. 29, 2008; and claimspriority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/105,155 entitled,“Apparatus, System And Method For A Brand Affinity Engine Using PositiveAnd Negative Mentions And Indexing,” filed Oct. 14, 2008, thedisclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein as if setforth in their entirety.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/220,917 is: a continuation-in-partof U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/144,194, entitled “System andMethod for Brand Affinity Content Distribution and Optimization”, filedJun. 23, 2008 is: a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 11/981,646, entitled “Engine, System and Method for Generation ofBrand Affinity Content”, filed Oct. 31, 2007; a continuation-in-part ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/981,837, entitled “An AdvertisingRequest And Rules-Based Content Provision Engine, System and Method”,filed Oct. 31, 2007; a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 12/072,692, entitled “Engine, System and Method For Generationof Brand Affinity Content, filed Feb. 27, 2008; and a continuation inpart of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/079,769, entitled “Engine,System and Method for Generation of Brand Affinity Content,” filed Mar.27, 2008, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference hereinas if set forth in their entirety.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/981,837 claims priority to U.S.Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/993,096, entitled “System and Methodfor Rule-Based Generation of Brand Affinity Content,” filed Sep. 7,2007, and is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/981,646, thedisclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein as if setforth in their entirety.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/079,769 is a continuation-in-part ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/042,913, entitled “Engine, Systemand Method for Generation of Brand Affinity Content,” filed Mar. 5,2008, which is also a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 12/072,692, the disclosures of which are incorporated byreference herein as if set forth in their entirety.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/072,692 is a continuation-in-part ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/981,646.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention

The present invention is directed to brand affinity software and, moreparticularly, to an apparatus, system and method for a brand affinityengine using positive and negative mentions.

Description of the Background

In typical current advertising embodiments, although sponsorship andpromotional media is an 80 billion dollar industry in the United States,very little sponsorship and promotional advertising is engaged in“on-line,” that is, in networked telecommunications environments such asInternet, extranet, intranet, satellite, wired, wireless, includingad-hoc wireless, and similar communication networks, which employcomputers, personal digital assistants, conference phones, cellulartelephones and the like. In fact, it its estimated that only 250 milliondollars in on-line advertising using sponsorship and promotionalmaterial is made available in the United States, or 0.31% of theaforementioned 80 billion dollar industry.

Further, the inefficiencies of obtaining sponsorship and promotionalsport in advertising drastically limit the universe of availablesponsors and promoters, at least in that, if procurement of a brand cantake several months, it stands to reason that advertisers will endeavorto obtain only those sponsors that the advertisers can be assured willhave a positive public image and likeability over the course of manymonths. Needless to say, this drastically limits the universe ofavailable sponsors. For example, it is estimated that, in themulti-billion dollar athletic sponsorship advertising industry, 95% ofsponsorship dollars are spent hiring the top 5% of athletes to becomesponsors. As such, very few sponsorships are made available by the priorart to less desirable athletes, although such athletes may be lessdesirable for any of a number of reasons, at least some of which reasonsare unrelated to likeability or negative image. For example, a baseballplayer may be a perennial all-star, but may play in a “small market,”and as such may not be deemed to fall within the top 5% ofathlete-sponsors. Consequently, although the exemplary player may bevery popular in certain areas or with certain demographics, in the priorart it is very unlikely this particular exemplary athlete will obtainmuch in the way of sponsorships.

Needless to say, the typically lengthy mechanism that precludessponsorship from occurring on-line thus, as discussed above, drasticallylimits the available universe of sponsors. Further, such currentmechanisms fail to take into account that certain sponsors may have awillingness to engage in certain sponsorships at certain times, withrespect to certain products, or in certain geographic locales, or may bedesired as sponsors at certain times, or only in certain geographiclocales, or only with regard to certain products. For example, in thesponsorship industry, it is well established that famous actors in theUnited States may market products internationally that they do not wishto lend sponsorship to in the United States. Additionally, because newswith regard to United States athletes or actors, for example, may breakmore quickly in the United States, those same athletes or actors mayexperience a lengthened time of availability for desirable sponsorshipin other countries. For example, a baseball player may come to besuspected of steroid use in the United States, thereby limiting hisdesirability as a sponsor for products in the United States, but maynonetheless continue to be popular in Japan until or if such steroid useis definitively proven. Thereby, an inability to efficiently provide forthat baseball player to become a sponsor in Japan, where that baseballplayer may not normally allow for his likeness to be used insponsorship, may seriously curtail sponsorship opportunities for thatbaseball player, as well as curtailing advertising possibilities forJapanese advertisers.

Thus, the need exists for an apparatus, system and method to allow forassessment of optimal sponsors for particular markets and/or inparticular geographies, and that provides increased sponsorshipopportunities in particular markets and/or in particular geographies.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention includes at least an apparatus, system and methodof implementing a computerized brand affinity engine. The apparatus,system and method include at least a plurality of computerized accesspoints having accessible thereto a plurality of sites mentioning atleast one sponsor, a categorized, hierarchical database of keywords,wherein at least the keywords falling in at least one category of thehierarchy correspond to a sponsor category of the at least one sponsor,and a tracker, wherein the tracker tracks positive ones of the mentionsof the at least one sponsor on ones of the plurality of sites andnegative ones of the mentions of the at least one sponsor on ones of theplurality of sites, in accordance with positive and negative keywords ofthe categorized, hierarchical database in the sponsor category, andwherein the tracker issues an rating with regard to the at least onesponsor in accordance with the positive ones and the negative ones ofthe mentions.

Thus, the present invention provides an apparatus, system and method toallow for assessment of optimal sponsors for particular markets and/orin particular geographies, and that provides increased sponsorshipopportunities in particular markets and/or in particular geographies.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

The present invention will be described hereinbelow in conjunction withthe following figures, in which like numerals represent like items, andwherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates an aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates an aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates an aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 5 illustrates an aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 6 illustrates an aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 7 illustrates an aspect of the present invention; and

FIG. 8 illustrates an aspect of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

It is to be understood that the figures and descriptions of the presentinvention have been simplified to illustrate elements that are relevantfor a clear understanding of the present invention, while eliminating,for the purposes of clarity, many other elements found in typicalcomputing apparatuses, systems and methods. Those of ordinary skill inthe art will recognize that other elements are desirable and/or requiredin order to implement the present invention. However, because suchelements are well known in the art, and because they do not facilitate abetter understanding of the present invention, a discussion of suchelements is not provided herein.

It is generally accepted that advertising (hereinafter also referred toas “ad” or “creative”) having the highest impact on the desired consumerbase includes endorsements, sponsorships, or affiliations from thosepersons, entities, or the like from whom the targeted consumers seekguidance, such as based on the endorser's knowledge of particular goodsor in a particular industry, the frame of the endorser, the respecttypically accorded a particular endorser or sponsor, and other similarfactors. Additionally, the easiest manner in which to sell advertisingtime or blocks of advertising time is to relay to a particularadvertiser that the advertising time purchased by that advertiser willbe used in connection with an audio visual work that has an endorsementtherein for that particular advertiser's brand of goods or services. Asused herein, such an endorsement may include an assertion of use of aparticular good or service by an actor, actress, or subject in the audiovisual work, reference to a need for particular types of goods orservices in the audio visual work, or an actual endorsement of the useof a product within the audio visual work.

Endorsements may be limited in certain ways, as will be apparent tothose skilled in the art. Such limitations may include geographiclimitations on the use of particular products (endorsers are more likelyto endorse locally in various locales rather than nationally endorse, inpart because national endorsements bring a single endorsement fee andgenerally preclude the repetitious collection of many smaller fees formany local endorsements), or limitations on the use of endorsements inparticular industries, wherein a different product or a differentindustry may be endorsed (such as in a different geographical area) bythe same endorser, or limitations on endorsements solely to a particularfield(s) or type(s) of product, rather than to a specific brand ofproduct. Further, endorsements by particular endorsers may be limited toproducts, brands or products or services, types of products or services,or the like which have been approved by one or more entities externalfrom, but affiliated with, the specific endorser. For example, theNational Football League may allow for its players only to endorsecertain products, brands of products, types of products, or the like,that are also endorsed by the NFL.

More specifically, as used herein endorsements may include: endorsementsor sponsorships, in which an individual or a brand may be used to marketanother product or service to improve the marketability of that otherproduct or service; marketing partnerships, in which short termrelationships between different products or services are employed toimprove the marketing of each respective product or service; and brandaffinity, which is built around a long term relationship betweendifferent products or services such that, over time, consumers come toaccept an affinity of one brand based on its typical placement withanother brand in another industry.

At present, there is a need for a platform or engine to allow for theobtaining of an endorsement, or endorsed ad, in any of theaforementioned circumstances, either from a specific individual, aspecific entity, an affinity brand, a marketing partner, or a sponsor.The development of a targeted advertisement involves a dynamicinterrelationship between all relevant factors, such as, for example,the goods, the purchasers, the endorsing personalities and their agents,and the existing or upcoming media associated with each. The idealadvertisement engine must be able to harness and manage all aspects ofeach of these factors, based upon only a limited number of parametersfrom which to initiate and generate the advertisement.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the brand affinity software engine 10 of thepresent invention may provide a recommendation engine 12, a creativeengine 14, a fulfillment engine 16, and a management engine 18. Thoseskilled in the art will appreciate that, although these engines areillustrated collectively in FIG. 1, that the present inventionadditionally contemplates the use of each of these engines discretelyfrom the remaining illustrated engines. In this exemplary embodiment,the recommendation engine may, based on any number of known or assessedfactors, recommend a sponsorship brand for use at certain times, incertain geographies, or with regard to certain products or services. Therecommendation engine may generate recommendation metrics, may issuescores, rankings, or the like. The creative engine may provide one ormore templates for the creation of sponsored advertisements, and mayadditionally provide content, such as from a content “vault” thatincludes content of a variety of media formats and with respect to amyriad of sponsors, for inclusion in a creative generated using theadvertising template. For example, such content may include text, suchas quotes, audio, video, pictures, highlights, or the like, and suchcontent may have limited availability categorized by time, location,product, service, or the like. The fulfillment engine of the presentinvention may, based on direct or redirect advertising delivery, deliverthe advertisements created using the creative engine. It almost goeswithout saying that advertisements created for fulfillment using otheradvertising creation engines may likewise be incorporated into thefulfillment engine of the present invention for delivery withadvertisements created using the creative engine of the presentinvention. Finally, the management engine of the present inventionprovides for tracking and reporting, as well as feedback for improvedmetrics, of the advertisements placed using the present invention.

As referenced hereinabove, the recommendation engine may provide brandmetrics for sponsoring brands, and the management engine may providefeedback with regard to modifying or improving the brand metrics ofsponsoring brands and/or sponsored ads. Such metrics may be gauged inany number of ways, certain of which will be apparent to those skilledin the art in light of the disclosure herein. For example, asillustrated in FIG. 2, positive 110 and negative 112 mentions ofsponsoring brands 114 may be tracked, such as by comparison of thosebrands with predetermined sets and/or subsets of “good” and “bad”keywords 120 for association with those sponsoring brands. Thereby,valuation may be assigned to certain keywords in the present invention,and the value of certain sponsoring brands may be tracked, based onassociation with those keywords, over time, in certain geographies, incertain markets, and/or with regard to certain products or services, andthe like. Keywords may, of course, be “good” to be associated with,meaning such keywords are indicative of positive associations with thesponsoring brand, “bad” to be associated with, meaning such keywords areindicative of negative associations with the sponsoring brand, or“neutral.”

Such keywords may be hierarchically organized as illustrated in FIG. 3,such that searches are performed only on certain categorically matchedsubsets 202 of such keywords 120 for sponsoring brands falling inparticular categories 204. Needless to say, all keywords may be runagainst all brands, rather than employing the aforementioned hierarchalsetup, and/or certain sponsoring brands may be associated with multiplesubsets of keywords simultaneously based on their presence in multiplecategories of sponsoring brands.

Thus, for example, a certain sponsoring brand falling within thecategory “professional sports,” a subset “baseball,” and the sub-subset“San Francisco Giants,” may be subjected to a plurality of Google orother search engine searches in association with positive keywords, suchas home run, all star, hall of fame, charity, game winning, outstanding,of the year, and the like. Conversely, the presence of a baseball playerin such a category may indicate similar searches for negative keywordssuch as steroids, cheat, gamble, attorney, perjury, court case, jail,incident, arrest, drunk driving, and the like. Needless to say, suchpositive or negative searches may be performed in a strictly booleanmanner, such as requiring only the presence of the named athlete and oneof the key words in a particular location, or may be performed as streamexpression searches, whereby a mention of the athlete within five wordsof a certain keyword or ten words of another keyword, is searched. Suchsearches are illustrated in FIG. 4. Needless to say, such searches may,in the case of Google, for example, return a number of hits for positiveor negative keywords. Alternatively, other media may be searched, suchas wherein a number of youTube views are tracked for positive ornegative videos or audio, greater numbers of views or downloads aretracked as being more positive on youTube or iTunes, positive ornegative references are tracked in on-line and/or print media, such asmagazines and newspapers, video requests are tracked Internet-wide forvideos using the sponsor, iTune downloads are tracked for videos oraudio using the sponsor, number of presences on youTube or iTunes istracked, or the like.

As mentioned hereinabove, the value of a reference to a sponsoring brandin association with a particular keyword may receive a rating, such aswherein the keyword has a particular rating associated with it, or, forexample, wherein the number of times a person has been associated withthat reference receives a different rating, such as a strength ofreference rating. For example, if a particular football player receivesten thousand references in accordance with a particular search, and onlyone of the ten thousand references mentions the negative keyword“marital affair,” it stands to reason that such a reference is unlikelyto have any true negative effect on a sponsoring brand, in part becausesuch a limited reference is unlikely to be very reliable. Thus, astrength of reference may increase as the number of associatedreferences of a particular sponsoring brand with a particular keyword orkeywords continue to occur.

Further, for example, a first time reference may act as a triggeringmechanism for review for additional references. For example, a recentscandal affecting a National Football League team involved a party on aboat, and although “boat” might not be a term typically searched for inassociation with a National Football League player, a first time mentionof a player in association with the word “boat” may act as a triggeringmechanism for additional searching for mention of that player, or thoseplayers, in association with that keyword.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a football playeris mentioned in association with a particular keyword. The keywordassociation may be assigned a +1 to +10 rating for a positive keywordassociative mention, or a −1 to a −10 rating for a negative keywordassociation. Additionally, if the associated keyword is flagged forassociation with the sponsoring brand searched, but in actuality doesnot apply for any one of a number of reasons, such as an unreliablesource or an actual reference to a different party, the association maybe marked with a N/A, for example. Such associations and keyword ratingof mentions may be performed automatically, or, upon flagging of aparticular sponsorship brand, may be performed manually. Manualsearchers may, needless to say, receive training in order to useconsistent numerical ratings for associative mentions. Further, manualsearchers may receive retraining such as wherein, for example, 100searchers rated a particular mention or series of mentions as a +5. Insuch a case, such mentions or similar mentions may be repeatedlyre-routed to a particular searcher-in-trainer until that searcher intraining begins to rate such mentions within a predetermined acceptablevariation of +5.

Continuing with the aforementioned exemplary embodiment, upon occurrenceof a triggering mechanism, searches may be performed at predeterminedintervals, such as daily or weekly, to check for a second and additionalassociative mentions. Thereby, a number of associative mentions at aparticular rating may be assigned. For example, the mention of baseballplayer John Doe in association with “steroid scandal” may receive arating of −5 for the first one hundred mentions, and −7 for alladditional mentions, and may result in two hundred mentions at anaverage of −6 rating. Thereby, with respect to that keyword, baseballplayer John Doe would receive a total rating of −1200. However, ifduring the same time frame the same baseball player John Doe wasmentioned two hundred times in conjunction with “charitablecontributions,” at an average rating of +7, baseball player John Doe mayreceive a +1400 rating during the same time frame. Thus, mentions ofbaseball player John Doe may be separately tracked as positive mentions,negative mentions, neutral mentions, and/or may be combined into anoverall rating, which in the above-referenced example would be a +200,during the referenced time frame in the market tracked and based on thekeywords tracked. Thereby, a sponsoring brand may have associatedtherewith a “heat index,” wherein the greater the total positive ratingfor all keywords tracked in all markets tracked may constitute how “hot”a sponsor is globally, and similarly a total negative rating would trackhow “cold” a particular sponsoring brand was. Needless to say, the aboveis exemplary in nature only, and similarly tracking could occur not onlyon a positive or negative association basis, but additionally on ageographic, product, service, or other basis. For example, theaforementioned “hot” and “cold” rating system may be used to draw ageographic “heat map,” wherein the rating of a sponsoring brand inparticular geographic markets may be laid out on a map illustrating thehotness or coldness of the sponsoring brand uniquely in each geographicmarket tracked.

Additionally and alternatively, the associative mechanism discussedhereinabove can operate with any desired sponsoring brand, and notnecessarily a particular person. For example, exemplary brand “Red FishBlue Fish Sail Boats” may be searched in conjunction with “sea worthy,”“best value,” “most popular” and “great fun” for positive associations,and may be searched in association with “crash,” “death,” or “sink” fornegative association. Thereby, the recommendation engine of the presentinvention may be extended beyond sponsorship, and may be used to assignpositive or negative ratings to almost any entity. Thus, particularentities may make use of the present invention to monitor the strengthof their own respective brands, such as in different markets or indifferent geographies.

Further, for example, the present invention may be used in theperformance of searches, such as internet-based searches, for positiveand negative mentions associated with anything or anyone, and in factthe present invention may thus provide a mechanism whereby a searchercan engage the present invention to search not only with regard to justselected entities or persons, but further with regard to only certainkeywords or subsets of keywords. For example, parents may perform globalsearches for the names of children in association with keywords such as“drugs,” or may limit searches to the names of children and theirfriends only on MySpace.com, only in the state of Wisconsin, and/or onlywith regard to all subsets of keywords under the topic “drugs.”Likewise, for example, prospective clients may perform keyword searchesfor their prospective attorneys or doctors in association with keywordssuch as “malpractice.”

Thus, a brand affinity rating may be assigned in accordance with therecommendation engine of the present invention. Needless to say, theattributes and/or keywords reviewed for association with particularbrands or sponsoring brands may vary by industry, such that the presentinvention may be used to generate side-by-side comparisons versuscompetitors by time, geography, product, or the like. For example, inthe pharmaceutical industry, a particular brand name may be searched forassociations versus a generic equivalent, using keywords such as “sideeffect,” “health benefit,” “cost effective,” and the like. Such a searchmay be performed by time, by geography, or the like. For example, if abrand name manufacturer of a high blood pressure drug suddenly sees adip in its rating too, for example, −700 versus competing generics in acertain geographic region, such as the northwestern United States, itbecomes obvious that that particular brand name must assess what sort ofnews has broken in the northwestern United States to negatively affectthe brand versus the generic, and/or must change or improve theirmarketing program in some way in the northwestern United States.

Similarly, the present invention may be used as a tool for marketingprojections over time. It almost goes without saying that the mostpositive effect an advertising tool can have is to predict who the nextbig sponsoring brand will be in a particular market or in a particularlocale, for example. For example, it may be that certain events on thePGA tour in certain locales create particularly positive “buzz” forcertain players on the PGA tour in those areas. Such an outcome wouldnot be surprising, because, of course, as the PGA tour moves todifferent events, the media moves with the touring professionals, andthus the qualitative and quantitative mentions of those touringprofessionals will increase with the movement of the tour, that is, willincrease in the locales of the next tour events. However, this may notbe the case for every tour event, such as the minor tour events, or itmay not be the case for every touring professional in every locale. Forexample, foreign touring professionals may not experience increased buzzin certain locales, such as in the deep southern United States.

The present invention, nonetheless, can predict, in the aforementionedexample, what PGA tour event, in what city, will affect, or mostpositively affect, what touring professional or professionals. Thus,using the present invention as a predictive tool, an advertiser can buysponsorship of a sponsoring brand of the touring professionalexperiencing the most positive buzz in the particular locale just beforethe increase in publicity is to occur. The present invention may, ofcourse, additionally make use of historical data on the “buzz”associated with a certain tour professional in a certain locale tofurther refine the predictive capabilities of the present inventionbased on the positive and negative mentions associated with that tourprofessional.

Of course, because the present invention connects the brand metrics ofthe recommendation engine to the generation of a creative in thecreative engine, and subsequently to the fulfillment engine wherein abuy of available advertising space occurs for placement of the creative,the present invention allows for a connection of the purchase ofavailable advertising space directly with the brand affinity metricsdiscussed hereinabove. More specifically, available advertising spacemay be purchased, for example, by a particular advertiser for use with aparticular sponsor only in those geographies in which that advertisementwith that sponsor will have the greatest impact. Additionally, this mayoccur, as discussed hereinabove, in a predictive manner, whereinadvertising space is purchased cheaply in advance of a particularoccurrence, but when the event occurs, the use of that advertising spacein conjunction with the sponsoring brand provides a maximized impact forthe minimal expense incurred in buying the available advertising spacein advance.

The presence of the management engine in the present invention allowsfor feedback with regard to the success of advertisements placed bytime, location, product, service, or the like. Further, such feedbackmay allow for the comparisons discussed hereinthroughout, such ascomparison of a particular sponsoring brand against a baseline “nosponsoring brand.” Thus, the positive effects of the use of sponsoringbrands may be tracked by sponsoring brand, product, service, market,time, geography, or the like.

As such, the present invention, although capable of measuring the valueof a particular creative, product, or service, more importantly providesa measurement of what, or who, can endorse a particular product orservice in order to help sell that product or service at a particulartime, to a particular market, or in a particular location. For example,the present invention might allow for an assessment that a significantsports star, such as Tiger Woods, which one might not necessarily thinkwould constitute a good endorser of hand soap, would indeed be a failedbrand association during the summertime in Texas on automotive-relatedwebsites. However, the present invention might likewise provide asomewhat surprising assessment that Tiger Woods advertising hand soap ona cosmetics site in the winter time in New Jersey would in fact lead toa significant increase in the success of sponsored advertisements placedmeeting that criteria. Thus, the present invention provides thecapability to leverage sponsoring brands at particular times inparticular locations, either by seeking that sponsoring brand, or bysearching across multiple sponsoring brands for ones that most costeffectively create the desired buzz at the appropriate time, in theappropriate market, and at the desired location.

Additionally, the present invention may allow for the association ofsponsoring brands with certain key events, and for advertisers to bealerted to the likely successful sponsoring brands upon the occurrenceof those certain events. For example, the annual inductions into theBaseball, Football or Rock and Roll Halls of Fame may lead to improvedsponsorship response to the sponsoring brands inducted into thoserespective Halls of Fame. Further, the present invention may provideinformation as to how long such a “bounce” in positive feelings towardthe inductees may last from an advertising standpoint. Additionally, thepresent invention may provide information as to what locations this“bounce” is most likely to occur in. For example, if a particularbaseball player is inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame after playinghis entire career for the Philadelphia Phillies, and it is known thatthe positive bounce for a Baseball Hall of Fame inductee typically laststhree months from the date of their induction and is strongest in thelocation during which the player played during his career, it would besuggested by the present invention that an advertiser seeking a sponsorin Philadelphia use as the sponsor the Hall of Fame inductee startingupon the Hall of Fame induction and for three months thereafter. Uponthe expiration of the three months, the present invention allows for arevision in advertising policy in real time, with a change to a newdesirable sponsorship brand occurring almost instantaneously upon thedecision to change over from the marketing campaign using the Hall ofFame inductee. Of course, the present invention thus makes availablesponsorship opportunities which may not otherwise be available. Forexample, in the aforementioned example, the present invention may assessthat Baseball Hall of Fame inductees typically experience a national“bounce” as sponsors for two weeks following their inductions. Thereby,the aforementioned Philadelphia Phillies player may have open to him asponsorship opportunity in Seattle for two weeks after his inductioninto the Hall of Fame, which Seattle sponsorship opportunity might nototherwise be made available to the player.

With regard to improved brand sponsorship gained through the use of thepresent invention, as discussed hereinthroughout, it is known in theexisting art to engage in a myriad of different types of advertisementonline. Two such advertisement types are: a search advertising model, inwhich a user undertakes to search for a good or service of interest andreceives, as part of or as indicated with a search result(s),advertisements relevant to purchasing the good or service for which thesearch was made and/or to purchasing goods or services related to thegood or service for which the search was made; and a display advertisingmodel, in which a user is actively viewing a web site and receives, aspart of the web site under review, advertisements for the purchase ofgoods or services relevant to the content of the web site under review.Needless to say, the former operates on the principal that, if a usersearches for a good or service, he/she would like to buy that good orservice, and the latter operates on the principal that if a user isinterested enough in the content of a web site to view that web site,he/she is also likely interested in buying goods or services related tothe content of that web site.

The display advertising model mentioned hereinabove is typicallyembodied as banner on a web site. For example, such banners may appearabove, below, to the left, or to the right of the content being viewed,but typically do not impinge upon the content being viewed. The searchadvertising model mentioned hereinabove is typically embodied asadvertisements/banners placed proximate to search results on the searchresults page responsive to the user search. For example, suchadvertisements may appear along a right hand side of a search resultspage, while the search results are displayed along the left hand side ofthe same search results page.

As discussed immediately above, it is necessarily the case that thecorrelations performed between the user's searched or viewed content andthe advertisements provided will increase the relevance of, and thus theresponse to, the advertisements. However, such responses in the form ofeither clicks on the advertisements or purchases made through theadvertisement link, once obtained at a particular rate, cannot befurther improved merely by the relevance of the advertisements produced.Rather, the only manner to improve the response rate once relevantadvertisements are produced is to improve the advertisements themselvesbased on the users viewing the advertisements.

The present invention provides such improved response advertisementthrough the provision of improved brand affiliations with the goods andservices being advertised, based in part on making use of “buzz”associated with certain sponsors, as discussed hereinthroughout. Asdiscussed, the present invention allows for the production ofadvertisements having brand sponsorship that is optimized to the marketsought. That is, the brand sponsor selected for an advertised good orservice is, though the use of the present invention, selected to bestcorrespond to the characteristics of the purchaser sought by theadvertisement.

This effect is illustrated with respect to FIGS. 5 and 6. FIG. 5illustrates the effect of the present invention with regard to a searchadvertising model, and FIG. 6 illustrates the effect of the presentinvention with respect to a display advertising model. In each of FIGS.5 and 6, a brand sponsor has been selected who will indicate, to theuser for whom the advertisement is deemed most relevant, trust, quality,value, a relationship to the user, and/or an overall positive feeling.The sponsor is either selected by the advertiser in the presentinvention for inclusion with the subject advertisement, based on theprofile of a desired purchaser and the characteristics of that sponsoras they relate to that profile, which relation is set forth or suggestedby the present invention, or the sponsor is selected by the presentinvention for inclusion in or with the subject advertiser'sadvertisement based on a desired responder profile for the advertisemententered by the advertiser to the engine of the present invention.

As illustrated graphically in FIGS. 5 and 6, a positive correlation of abrand sponsor to a brand, which is necessarily also a correlation of abrand sponsor to those purchasers most interested in buying the subjectbrand, correlates positively to a increased transaction rate. In otherwords, to the extent the present invention provides brand affiliations,sponsorships, and the like that are well-suited to the sponsored brand,that brand will show an increase in the number of users who are shownthat advertisement and that either click that advertisement or purchasethat brand through that advertisement. It is estimated that the increasein the desired response rate in accordance with the use of the presentinvention may typically be a 3 to 5 times increase, based on theincreased positive correlation between the sponsored brand and the brandsponsor provided by the present invention, although those skilled in theart will understand that more or less improvement in the transactionrate may occur based on the implementation of the present invention.

Thus, in accordance with the present invention, and as illustrated inFIGS. 5 and 6, an increased correlation of a brand sponsor to asponsoring brand, and thus an increased correlation of a sponsoringbrand to a desired purchaser's profile, is provided. This increasedcorrelation generates an improved transaction rate in accordance withthe present invention, for at least a search advertising model and adisplay advertising model.

Certain embodiments of the present invention with regard to positive ornegative scoring of mentions may be performed automatically, asdiscussed hereinthroughout or, as discussed hereinthroughout, certainembodiments of the present invention may be performed manually.Additionally, certain embodiments in the present invention mayconstitute the union of automatic and manual review. Such embodimentsare summarized in the illustration of FIG. 7. The programmatic scoringapparatus 700 for scoring one or more mentions of one or more sponsoringbrands, illustrated in FIG. 7 may include a content review window 702 topresent an item to be scored to a reviewer, and a scoring input 704 by ascoring reviewer 706. The scoring apparatus may additionally include areview tracker 710 that tracks scores entered into the scoring inputalong with characteristics associated with the scoring input, and/or amanager's engine 720 that manages the scoring input to provide limiteddeviation among at least two of the scoring inputs.

In part, the reason for the variability in the embodiments of thepresent invention is that review and scoring rules must be strictlyapplied in order for the subject metrics to have maximum effect. Forexample, as discussed hereinthroughout, if a first manual or automaticreview produces a rating of three, and a second automatic or manualreview produces a rating of eight, for the same article, the variabilityin the scoring allows for no conclusions to be made with regard to themention of the subject sponsoring brand. Thus, in one exemplaryembodiment of the present invention, first arising mentions ofparticular sponsoring brands of interest may be referred to experts inthe categorical field into which that sponsoring brand falls. Forexample, a first arising mention of an NFL quarterback being arrestedfor domestic violence may be referred to an expert in use of NFL playersas sponsoring brands. This initial expert reviewer may be aided bycertain automatic tools associated with the present invention, such aswherein the article is abstracted, highlighted, or the like tospecifically target the mentions of interest to the reviewer. Thesubject expert then scores the mention, either positively or negatively,and the mention is then referred to other like experts in the same orsimilar fields. Those other experts may then also score the mention, andfor each scoring expert, a tracking may be performed of the score, thevariability from a typical score given by that expert, how long themention was reviewed before the scoring occurred, who the scorer was,the experience with regard to scoring of that scorer, and a comparisonof that score, along with the variability of that score, from otherscores with regard to the same or similar mentions.

Thus, the present invention allows for an upper tier of expert scorers,and lower tiers of greater numbers of scorers. Needless to say, once thescorer metrics of the lower tier scorers approach those of the expertscorers, the lower tier scorers may likewise becomes experts, andgreater weight will be accorded to their respective scorings.

Further, the applicable rules for scoring variability are softened inthe present invention with regard to both expert and non-expert scorersin the event that very few mentions occur with regard to the subjectincident being scored. For example, as discussed hereinthroughout, inthe event that only two internet mentions occur of a particularsponsoring brand mistreating animals, it is quite likely that suchmentions are false or mis-associated, and thus the scoring of suchmentions is less important than the scoring of other more highly truementions. Thereby, sponsoring brands receiving greater numbers ofmentions with regard to certain topics are subject to more strictscoring rules with regard to scoring experts and non-experts than arebrands receiving fewer mentions. Thus, for example, scoring rules may bemore strict for certain topical mentions of actor Tom Cruise, or for allmentions of actor Tom Cruise, than such rules would be for a lesserknown actor, or for an actor receiving significantly fewer mentions.

In accordance with the discussion immediately hereinabove, the reviewingengine of the present invention may include the review manager's engineof FIG. 7 that allows for the granting of review privileges inaccordance with the present invention. More specifically, the manager'sengine may allow, manually or automatically, for adjustment in thescores of certain reviewers, and/or for the changes in expertise levelsof certain reviewers upon the meeting of certain review criteria. Forexample, the manager's engine may, interstitially or continuously,insert certain articles having certain mentions of certain sponsoringbrands with regard to certain topics. The manager's engine may track thescores, timing, and the like granted by particular reviewers, and maycontinue to perform such training exercises until that reviewer'sscorings come within an allowable deviation from an acceptable reviewscore of such sponsoring brand, or of such mention, or in such category.Thereby, reviewers can be trained to grant scores within an acceptabledeviation, scores can be changed based on information gained about thescoring reviewer, or re-scoring can continue regarding certain brands,mentions, categories, or the like, for example, until a scorer begins togrant scores within an acceptable deviation to allow that scorer to “golive.”

Of course, as referenced hereinabove, sponsoring brands may beprioritized as to whether, or if, mentions of such sponsoring brands arereviewed. For example, a local, unknown actor having a total of twoadvertisements nationwide in which that actor is used as the sponsoringbrand would merit little attention to rating mentions of that actor werethat actor to rob a bank, but, in the event a more well-known actor,such as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, were to rob a bank, scoringwould become far more important. In such an event wherein a well-knownsponsoring brand received numerous surprising mentions regarding thesame topic, the present invention would, as discussed hereinabove, allowfor multiple article mentions to be reviewed by different people, withinor without those people being in a categorically related field ofexpertise. In the event that the scores accorded the multiple articleswere relatively standard with little deviation, the assumption may bemade that the reviewers are all of expert level with regard to thatcategory, and/or with regard to such mentions, and/or with regard tosuch a sponsoring brand, but if the scores are inconsistent and/orillustrate significant deviation, other avenues may be necessary. Forexample, in the case of such inconsistent scores, statistical analysismay be performed. For example, outlying scores may be eliminated fromcontribution to the total score, only scores falling within a certainstandard deviation may be used in scoring, or multiple new articlesregarding the same mention may be sent to the same group of people forrescoring, or may be sent to a different group of people for a newscoring in repetition until the total scoring regarding the subjectmentioned is within an acceptable statistical limit. Thereby,statistical accuracy allows for improved ratings of mentions,particularly with regard to more significant sponsoring brands receivingmore numerous mentions. Of course, in certain embodiments and withregard to certain mentions, the ratings may never, in fact,statistically converge, for a myriad of possible reasons.

For example, in the event that a significant actor robbed a bank becauseall of his or her money was stolen by an agent, and in fact the actorneeded the money to care for an ill child, persons having expertise inrating mentions regarding robberies, or crimes in general, may attributewildly different scores to the subject mention, in part because some orall of the scorers may feel that the extenuating circumstances of thecrime should significantly affect the negativity, or positivity, of thesubject mention. Thus, in such convoluted circumstances, scoresregarding the mention may never converge, or in fact a very negativeoccurrence may converge on a surprisingly positive score.

In anticipation of the aforementioned eventual convergence, ornon-convergence, of scoring, the frequency of scoring may vary withregard to the type of mention, the sponsoring brand of interest, thecategory of mention, or the like. For example, in the above referencedembodiment, in the event an actor robbed a bank, scoring of all mentionsmay occur repeatedly, such as eight times per day, for the first weekafter the occurrence. Thereafter, scoring may be performed once per dayfor the next week, and twice per week thereafter, for example, until thenumber of mentions, or the score of mentions, fall above or below acertain threshold. Thus, variability in review periods may be determinedprogrammatically, such as by sponsoring brand, type of sponsoring brand,category of sponsoring brand, mention, type of mention, category ofmention, reviewer scores deviations, numeric average reviewer score, orthe like.

Of course, mentions may be tracked and flagged based on the presence ofkey words, such as key words constituting sponsoring brands in certainevents, as discussed hereinthroughout. However, in certain events, keywords may not alert reviewers that an article should be placed underreview. For example, in the event a particular actor's family member hasmade anti-Semitic remarks, monitoring for key word mentions may not besufficient to flag such mentions to enable review.

For example, in this example, if certain keywords were subject tosearch, such as “Christian,” “Jewish,” “Father” and the actor's name asa sponsoring brand, even a mention that met all of these key words mightnot be flagged as having any negative connotation, in part because thekey words themselves, in the abstract, do not have any negativeconnotation. In such cases, however, it is likely that a spike willoccur in the number of mentions of the sponsoring brand. Thus, thepresent invention is preferably fluidic in that, even in cases where keyword mentions do not force review of certain sponsoring brands, otherevents, such as simply spikes in the number of mentions of a sponsoringbrand, may flag that sponsoring brand and those mentions for review.

It almost goes without saying that all data rated in accordance with thepresent invention, or certain subsets of data rated in accordance withthe present invention, may be stored, such as in a relational database,in accordance with the present invention. For example, data in articlesand periodicals may be reviewed via accessing RSS data feeds inaccordance with the present invention, and may be rated thereby.Further, such articles and periodicals may be downloaded via those RSSdata feeds, either for ratings purposes, periodically in accordance witha certain time frame, or upon occurrence of each mention of one or morenouns or proper nouns, or upon occurrence of one or more online oroffline triggers, for example. Thus, in accordance with the presentinvention, there is no need to store particular web pages, or crawlparticular web pages, as is done by, for example, prior search enginessuch as the Google® search engine. However, RSS feeds, and/or thecontent thereof, may be indexed in a manner similar to web pages, suchas indexing based on certain nouns, proper nouns, or requested keywords, for example. Thus, the present invention may provide, forexample, all articles and periodicals available on-line via RSS datafeeds, indexed by all proper nouns, categories of proper nouns, certainpre-selected nouns or key words, or categories of selected nouns or keywords, for example. Further, the indexing of the present invention mayallow for exclusion of certain nouns, proper nouns, or key words, fromdownloading, storage, ratings, review, or access, for example. Thereby,data stored in accordance with the present invention may allow for buzztracking and/or rating of mentions not only of famous persons, forexample, but additionally of hotel chains, sports teams, homeappliances, or anything that can be associated with a proper noun orkeyword, for example.

Needless to say, the storage of all data in association with the presentinvention, in conjunction with indexing of that stored data, allows fordata mining through the use of the present invention. Data mining, asused herein, indicates a review of data to locate patterns,relationships, and/or information within data not evident in the dataprior to the data mining, and may make use of data within one or moredatabases or database related applications, for example. Prior art datamining applications, in part due to the aforementioned downloading ofevery web page, tend to mine all data and thus generate information fromthe data mining that is only moderately useful. For example, certainprior art engines can provide information as to who searches for what,and where they search, in certain on-line applications. However, moredetailed information, or the capability to mine for associations andbuzz, particularly with regard to buzz in relation to certaincategories, is unavailable in the prior art but is available through theuse of the present invention.

For example, proper noun sets may segmented in accordance with thecurrent invention for data mining. The instant invention can, in part byobtaining information regarding the number of hits on particulararticles, particular web pages, or particular RSS feeds, and inconjunction with knowledge of a metric rating of an article, recognizeby data mining the extent to which a particular article affects theopinions of a percentage of the population. For example, if an articlemention rates at a negative 3, that is to a degree a poor mention forthe subject of the article (that is, the proper noun mentioned in thearticle), and if that article received 8,000 hits, 25% of which hitswill typically repost the article at least once, it can be projectedthat at least 10,000 perspective consumers will have their opinion ofthe proper noun mentioned in the article negatively affected to anegative degree of 3 on the subject rating scale. Similarly, certainnon-proper nouns may be tracked in accordance with the presentinvention, and/or in conjunction with the aforementioned proper nouns,such as the terms charity, arrested, new movie, alcohol abuse, and thelike. Thereby, the present invention not only provides a projection ofthe extent of an effect on people's opinions, and how many opinions willbe effected, but also allows for an inverse data mining analysis, thatis, the effect a charitable giving reference has on all celebrities withregard to which charity is mentioned.

The storage and mining of data in accordance with the present inventionis reflected in FIG. 8. FIG. 8 illustrates the key word search mechanismof the present invention, wherein searching is performed, and RSS feedsaccessed and downloaded to the repository of the present invention.Additionally, FIG. 8 illustrates the storage of the RSS feeds inaccordance with the present invention, along with an indexing hierarchyfor use with the present invention. Such an indexing hierarchy may allowfor a map reduction indexing, that is, wherein the stored data is storedin accordance with information in multiple categories, certain of whichcategories may be subsets of other categories. This indexing may beexternally controlled, such as by entry of indexing instructions,whereby searching, indexing and storage may be performed in accordancewith any indexing instructions entered to the indexing mechanism.

Although the invention has been described and pictured in an exemplaryform with a certain degree of particularity, it is understood that thepresent disclosure of the exemplary form has been made by way ofexample, and that numerous changes in the details of construction andcombination and arrangement of parts and steps may be made withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the invention.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A data mining system for use in rating endorsers, comprising: a data storage unit; a server computer having a tangible computing processor, the processor in data communication with the data storage unit and a non-transitory computer memory that stores instructions which, when executed on the processor, cause the computer to implement: a search engine configured to search a web accessible content comprising data in online publication accessible through one or more webpages for mentions of an identified endorser in conjunction with one or more keywords in the data, wherein the endorser comprises one of an affinity brand, a marketing partner, and a sponsor, the search engine configured to send the searched web accessible content including the mentions of the endorser and the one or more keywords to the data storage unit; a ratings engine configured to process the mentions in at least a portion of the web accessible content based on a subset of a categorical keyword hierarchy and a number of words in the web accessible content between the endorser and the corresponding keywords, wherein positive mentions and negative mentions are tracked by a tracker and combined by the ratings engine into an overall rating, wherein a first number of occurrences of each of the positive and negative mentions has a first rating multiplier and a second number of occurrences of each of the positive and negative mentions has a second rating multiplier for calculating the overall rating; an information engine configured to obtain information regarding a number of viewings of the rated mentions in the web accessible content; a data miner communicatively connected to the search engine and the ratings engine, the data miner operative to generate a consumer opinion index of the endorser based on the keywords and a correlation of the overall rating and the number of viewings, the data miner configured to download the searched web accessible content including the mentions of the endorser and the one or more keywords to, and to send the consumer opinion index to, the data storage unit; wherein the data storage unit stores the consumer opinion index and the searched web accessible content including the mentions of the endorser and the one or more keywords via map reduction indexing; the system further comprising: a display window coupled to the server computer configured to display a heat map of endorsers and corresponding keywords based on the consumer opinion index stored in the data storage unit via the map reduction indexing; wherein the web accessible content, the mentions of the subject in conjunction with the keywords, and the consumer opinion index are searchable using the map reduction indexing without storing of the one or more webpages.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein said search engine searches at least daily.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one subject includes a surname.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one subject includes a brand name.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one subject includes an adjective.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one subject includes a noun.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one subject includes a phrase.
 8. The system of claim 1, wherein the consumer opinion index is displayed in relation to a location of the mention.
 9. The system of claim 1, wherein the information feeds are limited to a predefined geographic scope.
 10. The system of claim 1, wherein the information feeds are limited to a predefined event.
 11. The system of claim 1, wherein said ratings engine comprises a manual one of the ratings.
 12. The system of claim 1, wherein said ratings engine comprises an automatically issued one of the ratings.
 13. The system of claim 1, wherein said at least one search engine comprises a web crawler.
 14. The system of claim 1, wherein the information regarding the number of viewings comprises information provided by a provider of the information feed.
 15. The system of claim 1, wherein the data storage unit comprises at least one relational database.
 16. The system of claim 1, wherein the mention is used to recommend a prospective endorser for an endorsed advertisement.
 17. The system of claim 1, wherein the mention comprises a press release.
 18. A computer-implemented data mining system for use in rating endorsers, comprising: a data storage unit; a server computer having a tangible computing processor, the processor in data communication with the data storage unit and a non-transitory computer memory that stores instructions which, when executed on the processor, cause the computer to implement: a categorized, hierarchical database input configured to provide access to keywords via map reduction indexing, the keywords comprising at least one of words or phrases having an identification type as being at least one of positive, negative and neutral; a search engine configured to search web accessible content comprising data in online publication accessible through one or more webpages for mentions of an identified endorser in conjunction with the keywords in the data, wherein the endorser is one of an affinity brand, a marketing partner, and a sponsor, the search engine configured to send the searched web accessible content including the mentions of the endorser and the one or more keywords to the data storage unit; a ratings engine configured to track the mentions from at least a portion of the web accessible content, and correlating the mentions to the keywords, keyword identification type and a frequency of each keyword to calculate an overall rating, wherein a first number of occurrences of the mentions has a first rating multiplier and a second number of occurrences of the mentions has a second rating multiplier for use in calculating the overall rating; an information engine configured to obtain information regarding a number of viewings of the rated mentions in the web accessible content; and a data miner communicatively connected to the search engine and the ratings engine, the data miner operative to generate a consumer opinion index of the endorser based on the keywords and a correlation of the overall rating and the number of viewings, the data miner configured to download the searched web accessible content including the mentions of the endorser and the one or more keywords to, and to send the consumer opinion index to, the data storage unit; wherein the data storage unit stores the consumer opinion index and the searched web accessible content including the mentions of the endorser and the one or more keywords via the map reduction indexing; and wherein the web accessible content, the mentions in conjunction with the keywords, and the consumer opinion index are searchable using the map reduction indexing without storing of the one or more webpages; the system further comprising: a display window coupled to the server computer to display a heat map of mentions and corresponding keywords based on the consumer opinion index stored in the data storage unit via the map reduction indexing.
 19. The system of claim 1, wherein the search engine performs a second search for web accessible content for mentions of the identified endorser in conjunction with the same keywords during a second time interval, wherein positive and negative mentions of the second search tracked are combined by the ratings engine into a second rating, wherein the overall rating is based on the overall rating and the second ratings.
 20. The system of claim 19, wherein the second search is performed on a different day. 